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SETUBANDHA
16. 'Rama's arrows, stuck deep in the bottom of the sea, are smouldering still,11 with their flames beaten down and noisily quenched by the seething waters.
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17. 'Wise one, build therefore a causeway even today. Let the widely separated Malaya and Suvela12 mountains unite, and the vast expanse of the sea divide in twain.'
18. Distinct in lustre from the host of apes because of his confidence in his art, Nala thereupon clearly spoke, respectfully raising his timorous eyes before the lord of the apes.
19. 'Lord of the apes, confidently do I speak before the apes as well as Rama. The confidence thou hast reposed in me in respect of the causeway shall not be in vain.
20. 'Let the mountains be destroyed, the nether regions rent asunder,13 the ocean convulsed, and my life sacrificed. But thy confidence in me shall be justified even today.
21. 'So behold a causeway, wide as the earth, built by me across the great ocean as on the surface of the earth, with the gap between the Malaya and the Suvela filled up with mountains clinging together.
22. 'Shall the host of apes cross the sea by a bridge of mountains set firmly together; or shall it march across the slightly raised bed of the sea after its waters have been swept away?
23. 'Or, behold. Let the Malaya, firmly held by my hands, and advancing upon the Suvela, sweep the intervening sea away, like as an elephant charging at its opponent shakes off the veil!14
that it will now break its promise by obstructing the building of the causeway. The idea of the causeway was suggested by the Ocean as described in Canto VI.
11. Sugrīva refers to the chastisement of the sea for failure to grant passage to Rama's army, as described in Canto V, and envisages the possibility of a similar catastrophe if there is further delay in building a causeway.
12. See verse 83.
13. i.e., by the mountains dropped into the sea.
14. Nala means that he will push the Malaya mountain through the sea to link it to the Suvela in Lanka, sweeping the waters away in the process! The Malaya advancing towards the Suvela is likened to a blindfolded elephant which charges at a rival elephant by shaking off its veil to which the sea is compared. See 2.22; 13.59.
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